Darkwell - Douglas Niles [87]
"You'd better take Yak with you," argued Tavish. "He'll be able to move rocks and stuff out of your way. And that means you'll have to take me, 'cause I'm the only one he listens to!"
"I'm coming, too," said Robyn quickly. "There's no sense in breaking up the group still further. Besides, things seem to have settled down."
"For now." Tristan was tempted to argue with them, but he knew that would be fruitless. "All right." He turned to the great moorhound. "Canthus, find Pawldo. Where's Pawldo?"
The moorhound looked at him quizzically for a moment, and then his ears pricked up excitedly. He bounded around the chamber, his nose to the floor, and then he started down the tunnel that led toward the heart of the firbolg stronghold.
Robyn and Tavish each grabbed a torch and followed the king in a flickering procession through the darkness. Canthus leaped ahead, then waited until the humans caught him before bounding ahead once again. Newt hovered over the dog.
It seemed like a long time as they pushed deeper into the ruined lair. Fortunately no new rumbles disturbed the silence, but neither was there any sign of the halfling. They had only their faith in the moorhound's keen nose to convince them they were on the right path.
"What could he be up to?" wondered Tristan as Robyn came up behind him.
"I think I know. Remember the gold and jewels, all that wealth that we left in here when we fled? I suspect he's gone back after it."
Tristan groaned. "Of course! I should have known he'd do that! Why didn't I think of it?"
"You can't think of everything." Robyn touched his arm and, as always, the pressure of her hand upon him calmed his nerves and cooled his judgment.
Suddenly Canthus stopped before a huge pile of rubble. With a soft whine, he started pawing loose rocks and broken pieces of timber out of the way. The king dropped to his knees beside him and started pulling more wreckage aside.
"Pawldo? Are you there?"
The voice that responded was faint but was unmistakably the halfling's. "Help! I'm stuck!"
Tristan's heart leaped at the sound. Pawldo was alive! "Wait'll we get you out! I'll strangle you! What kind of a prank is this?"
"I'll let you strangle me! Just get me out of here!"
The king heard the strumming of the lute behind him and looked up to see the firbolg leaning curiously over him. "Yak dig?"
"Yes!" gasped Tristan, already exhausted. He sat against the tunnel wall. "Yak dig!"
The giant pulled a heavy beam out of the way, then roughly shouldered several boulders aside. He reached a brawny paw into the rubble and pulled roughly.
"Ouch! My neck! Hey, that hurts! Urf!" Yak ignored Pawldo's protests as his shoulders tensed. Tristan imagined he heard a popping sound as Pawldo suddenly burst from the pile of rubble.
Yak held Pawldo by the scruff of his neck, lifting him up so that the others could see. The giant's face was split by a wide grin. "Look! Yak find Pawll-do! Hi, Pawll-do!"
"Put me down, you behemoth!… There, that's better." The halfling cleared his throat a few times and dusted himself off before glancing sheepishly at his friends.
"Uh, thanks, everybody. I'm, uh, sorry about all this, but I didn't know the place was going to collapse just because I moved a stupid board! Besides, I, uh, I wanted to explore the ruins a little -"
"Explore my eye!" exclaimed Robyn with a scowl. "You went looking for the treasure room, didn't you?"
"And I found it, too! Except someone else had been there first – they cleaned out everything!"
"Everything?" The druid eyed him shrewdly.
"Well, just about everything. I did sort of find a few things… nothing too great. There's this -" Pawldo reached into his pouch and pulled out the medallion, its ruby heart scintillating in the torchlight.
Robyn gasped and seized the golden talisman, though Pawldo kept a tight grip on the chain. "This is the same symbol that marked the Scrolls of Arcanus! It's the sign of the goddess, the one called Chauntea."
Pawldo grimaced